Boston groups to bring Sderot teens for summer

April 20, 2007 9:00am

Jewish groups in Boston are gathering support to bring 20 teenagers from Sderot to summer camps in New England. The Children of Sderot project estimates it must raise $36,000 to finance travel costs for the teens, who have endured frequent barrages of Palestinian rocket fire since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Inna Rifkin, a Russian-Jewish immigrant, initiated the project after learning of her daughter’s experiences working with Russian teenagers in the town, according to a report in the Jewish Journal Boston North. “We want to give these children, even for just a little while, what they don’t have at home: happiness, safety and care,” Rifkin said. The project has garnered support so far from Shaloh House, a Jewish day school in Brighton, Mass. and the Russian School of Mathematics in Newton, Mass. which Rifkin heads. A fund-raiser is scheduled for May 12 in Marblehead, Mass.